IPOH (Sin Chew Daily) — The first stop of the national roadshow on the second edition of Sin Chew Business Awards was held in Ipoh on April 18 with strong participation from representatives of SMEs in the state of Perak.

Seah Siew Yun, senior executive director of Grant Thornton Malaysia, was speaking about GST during the seminar. Sin Chew Business Awards working committee chairman Lenny Cheah talked about the various categories, eligibility and rules and regulations in relation to the awards, while Grant Thornton partner Desmond Tan explained the procedures and criteria of the selection process.

The second Sin Chew Business Awards is organized jointly by Sin Chew Daily and MCIL Multimedia Sdn Bhd, both under Sin Chew Media Corporation. CIMB Bank is the exclusive sponsor of this event

Cheah, who is also the general manager for sales & marketing, MCIL Multimedia Sdn Bhd said Sin Chew Business Awards had become one of the most coveted industrial awards for SMEs in the country.

She said the logo for the awards is a graphical presentation of the Chinese word for "enterprise" (企) which is made up of two parts: "man" on top and "halt" at the bottom, meaning enterprises must be people-oriented, failing to do which a company would just stop moving ahead.

She said the word is supported by four pillars which represent innovation, transformation, sustainability and corporate leaders, white the yellow color signifies prosperity.

Sin Chew Business Awards will be conducted through nominations and by invitation. Any small and medium sized companies incorporated in Malaysia can register. Registration fee is RM1,500.

Meanwhile, Desmond Tan said participants of the Sin Chew Business Awards will be evaluated by an independent evaluation panel made up of representatives from various industries and business organizations.

He said under the first stage evaluation, external auditors will select eligible SMIs while the second stage evaluation will list the finalists which will be visited by the judges for on-site evaluation.

"In the third stage, the judges will separate the contestants into various categories for evaluation purposes."